One of the most common causes of a power outage is a sudden snow or ice storm. Such inclement weather will often cause the downing of power lines (due largely to the weight of the snow or ice) and other municipal infrastructure within the electrical grid used to supply residential electricity. Because such snow and ice storms also cause downed trees and blockage of roads, municipal authorizes often must wait several hours (often days) in order to repair this infrastructure. During such wait time, residential homes may be without electricity for prolonged periods of times often with temperatures dipping below freezing.
A residential home may not be able to maintain heat during these prolonged power outages—even when a furnace is based upon propane, natural gas, fuel oil or other fossil fuel. This is because there will be no electrical source to maintain the controls necessary to regulate the furnace, as well as no ability to maintain an ignition source for such heat supply. Thus, even though there is a steady supply of fuel available during this inclement weather—such as a repository of propane—maintained at the home—there is no ability to fuel the home because there is no sufficient level of electricity to regulate the furnace or ignite the fuel routinely to maintain a comfortable temperature in the home.
Without the ability to regulate the temperature of the home, the foundation of the home will likewise begin to loose heat. This in turn may result in the freezing of water supply lines into the home. Therefore, once the electrical grid is repaired and power restored, there may nonetheless be the secondary issue of a loss of water supplied to the home. While a secondary issue caused by a snow or ice storm, the loss of water supply is often more difficult to repair and may cause larger damage and inconvenience to the home owner.
Very little has been done to create cost effective means for home owners to plan for a power outage cause by a snow or ice storm. One solution available today is the purchase of a self-contained electrical generator that may supply electricity for a short period of time to the furnace and other essential components of a home. However, electrical generators are limited in the amount of fuel that they can carry, the amount of electricity that they supply—plus you often have to run multiple extension cords throughout the home to supply energy. Moreover, such generators are expensive and cumbersome to store.
Another solution is to equip a furnace with a large electrical battery. However, this is not only cumbersome, but it still has the limitation as to life expectancy. Should a power outage be prolonged, a mere electrical battery may not have a sufficient amount of energy to power both the control and ignition source for the fossil fuel powered furnace. Moreover, a simple battery will not be able to supply power to other necessary appliances such a refrigerator.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for a device capable of providing sufficient electrical power to both a furnace and other key appliances in the event of a power outage during a cold weather event such as a snow or ice storm. Such system should be cost effective, robust and capable of supplying this level of electricity for prolonged periods of time sufficient to allow municipal authorities to identify and fix any problems. Lastly, the system should help reduce risk of the freezing of water supply lines during such cold weather event.